Twenty-five years ago Mostafa Pour-Aliabadi, 44, was a manual laborer. Last year, he and his wife, Sakineh, hosted 900 tourists at Kalout Ecolodge, six rooms he built around his garden, in the village of Shafiabad, near Kerman. The village is the very last populated area before the road veers into the world-renown Kaluts area of..
“What matters in the world is having kids, leaving something behind of yourself. I’ve got three sons and five daughters. Without kids you’re like a blind man. When you die, nothing is left of you.” – Shepherd Aliakbar Dandashti, 58.
Mohammadreza Hassankhani, 36, is one of seven rangers in charge of protecting the 1.5 million hectare Naybandan (NAI-ban-don) Wildlife Refuge that sits on the edge of the infamous Dashte-Lut Desert in central Iran, known for being one of the hottest places on Earth. The park is home to at least 177 types of plants; dozens of..
Marzieh Avari, 59, is the sole resident of the abandoned village of Aliabad (ALI-awe-bawd), inside the Naybandan (nai-ban-DON) Wildlife Refuge in central Iran. The nearest population is in Naiband (NAI-band), 35km away by road or 15 km on foot through the wilderness. Her home sits in the shadow of a disintegrating 400-year-old caravanserai and the..
Ibrahim is a blue-eyed 72-year-old shepherd in the village of Kharaghan, aka Qaleno-e-xaraqān, north of Shahrud. He spends his days tending sheep and goats in the rocky plains just south of the famed Cloud Forest. Some of Iran’s greatest philosophers and Sufi masters walked these same plains through the centuries. “I’ve been walking this field..
Mostafa Rahemi, 80, is an attari (AT-tawry, traditional medicine man who heals using herbs and plant extracts) and a former bodybuilder. His store, filled with yellowing historic photos, is the only one left in an old alley in the ancient Shiraz neighborhood of Ghashoo-Ghashe, near Shah Sheragh Shrine. Rahemi (RAW-hemy) says: “Seven-hundred years ago, back..